Along Hwy. 168

First have to congratulate Rick on hammering Dear John into submission…and the lawn looks great.

Eric has some good pictures of the RV show and I think he has found his dream RV.

Gail and TC are experiencing some nasty storms.  Stay dry guys.

And Teri got a surprise from the Post Office!

We started off this morning all excited about seeing the Bishop petro glyphs.  There are three locations along a dirt road just a couple of miles from Bishop.  The entire tour is only about 20 miles and the promo material declares the road can be accessed by passenger cars but may be a little washboardy. 

We went the first 4 miles on the paved portion of the road and then we hit the dirt part.  Oh boy!  It really didn’t look that bad but our Wee Fit was having a Big Fit about traveling that stretch of road.  We bounced and we jiggled (not a pretty sight) and Miss Fit sounded like she was falling apart.  I would say Russ screamed like a girl but I already used that line, and besides, he didn’t!  He groaned like a guy!  But the dogs were getting worried and Rusty urped on his blankie!

I saw a little turn out and decided I didn’t want to see the petroglyphs badly enough to ruin our little car and make the dogs sick.  So we got out and walked the dogs and took a few pictures.  There is no bad place to stop in this area…there are pictures EVERYWHERE!

We could almost pretend that those white striations were petroglyphs.  Just use a little imagination.

This is looking east towards the White Mountains.

  

And look west towards the Eastern Sierras…

And if you look hard enough, you can find a little stream in the most unexpected places.

As we were leaving the area, we spotted this bird perched on top of this old dead tree and I quickly rolled down the window and got a quick shot.  I admit I know nothing about birds but it must be a hawk or an osprey.  At any rate it was no match for a crow that was 1/3 its size and willingly gave up its perch to its smaller adversary.

So with no success on navigating yet another interesting dirt road, we decided to fall back on one of our favorite drives up Hwy. 168.  In town it is Line Street and you just head west and soon you are going steeply up the mountain.
 
Less than 20 miles from town, Is Lake Sabrina, the origin of Bishop Creek.  Yet again, we were foiled by snow as the gate was across the road at Aspendell, but we did some walking and picture taking anyway.

First stop was Bishop Park Campground.  It was still closed due to snow but that didn’t mean we couldn’t park and walk in!  It was a beautiful day, shorts weather, and it wasn’t long before even our light windbreakers had to go.  We thought about a picnic but this table was going to do us no good.

Some of the campsites were free of snow and looked like a wonderful place to stay.

Poppy of course made her snow angels again but she had a hard time navigating on the soft and rapidly melting snow.    She also got “high-centered” trying to get off this little snow hill.

I couldn’t let Rusty off leash as he was totally focused on the sound of the creek and pulling to get to it.  Since it was still inaccessible to us mere humans, I could not risk having him run to the creek and find himself in trouble.

This is our favorite campsite…#1.  It is at the end of the campground and is large and fairly flat.  There is a little spur where you could pull up and then just back into the space with no trouble.  I’d like to try it someday.  I added arrows just to show how easy it would be!!  Pull up, back in!

If you were camped here, this is the view you would wake up to every morning.

This is just over a small rise at the end of the campground and it shows the trail to the highway.  On the other side of the highway is a very nice group camp.

 

Taken from the little trail in the previous picture, this is Little Miss Fit, sitting on the pavement that she prefers, enjoying the scenery, and waiting patiently for our return.

We walked across the highway to explore the group camp and get some pictures of Bishop Creek.

There are steps down into the group camp area and parking at the top.

I thought these rock columns in the group camp were interesting.

Just a couple of miles back down the road is Lower Intake 2 Campground.  It is so named because that is where they have dammed Bishop Creek and make a small lake.  It is one of the intakes for the massive water pipes that carry water from this area to supply the demands of Los Angeles.  You can read more about that on a previous blog of mine.

This is a popular fishing lake during trout season.  A lady asked me if there was swimming in the summer.  I really don’t think they do much swimming here as the water is freezing.

Rusty finally got to get in the water and he didn’t seem to mind the temperature.

It was time to head back to the ranch but that didn’t mean the end of the picture taking opportunities.  Remember those pipes I mentioned?  Here is a portion of that huge pipe with Bishop below in the valley.

It’s all downhill from there…

…but around every turn in the road you encounter yet another Awww! moment.

 

At the bottom of the hill, just before you get back to town, is the Campus of Eastern Sierra College Center.  How would you like to complete your studies in this setting?

Well, it’s about time to start dinner so I guess I will just duck out for now…

 

THE END!